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How To's: How to Interpret Test Scores
Tests are an important part of an effective personnel selection system. Tests are one of the most effective ways we can measure certain abilities which are critical to success on jobs. Information from tests, when combined with other sources of information about candidates, such as work history, attitude measures, interview data, and references, round out the information which employers have about potential job candidates, giving the hiring supervisor a more complete set of information from which to make selection, placement, and employee development decisions.
There are a number of ways that tests may be used in making employee selection decisions. Scores may be combined with other assessments in a compensatory system, or the tests may be used separately to screen candidates in a multiple-hurdles system. Further, candidates may be required to achieve a minimum passing score, they may be ranked on the basis of their scores and selected top-down, or they may be grouped into score bands representing major levels of performance. How an employer may best use test scores in making hiring decisions depends on a variety of factors. For example, the nature of the labor market, the nature of the position in question, diversity recruitment goals of the employer, costs associated with training and employee turnover, and costs to the organization associated with sub-standard employee performance.
For those test users who desire general guidance in establishing a passing score or in identifying broad bands for ranking candidates, test scores can be classified into several levels, or "action bands." The action bands provide a reasonable framework for identifying candidates who are likely to be very good, adequate, or poor performers. An example of how scores can be classified into three levels or action bands is shown below:
- The Top Band
- Scores in the top 30 percent of the score distribution
- The Middle Band
- Scores in the middle 40 percent of the score distribution
- The Lower Band
- Scores in the bottom 30 percent of the score distribution